Now that’s a cruiser You got your cruisers, and then you got your cruisers, you know? Let’s talk police cruisers first. After last week’s Take Back the Road Ride (a.k.a. Critical Mass – this is getting confusing) was crashed by City of Miami Police, the Bike Blog called around to…
Working for Key Biscayne’s biggest real estate developer has its price. This past May 21, the Miami-Dade ethics commission notified Village Mayor Robert Vernon that he cannot vote on a plan to expand the island municipality’s open green space. The reason: Vernon is a real estate broker for Edgardo DeFortuna’s…
Last week, Riptide got into the holiday spirit with a little rant about a statement made on a Memorial Day party flyer. Among the comments, we also received an apology from Marcelo Medina of Mag Entertainments, a.k.a. the promotions company that put its foot in its mouth: I sincerely apologize…
Green Eggs And Ham, I Am (no more) A few months after filing for Chapter 11, a posted sign on the window makes it official: “Cafeteria out of business.” This round-the-clock Lincoln Road eatery premiered in November of 2003, its sister branch having opened in New York five years earlier…
A dozen inmates wait patiently in hard plastic chairs arranged in tight rows. They fix their stares on the steel double doors that occasionally bang open to admit a new face, usually a lawyer with a heavy briefcase. The visitation center lobby at the federal prison in downtown Miami hums…
Whore Hounds, Unite Filed under: Culture Thank God for the Internet. Should all of South Florida be swallowed up by the sea, scientists 50 years from now will still be able to create a digital map of where to get the best handjobs in Miami. You don’t need a white…
Nearly a year and a half after a Chalk’s seaplane crashed over Miami Beach, killing 20 people, the National Transportation Safety Board came to some conclusions about the cause of the accident during a meeting today. Faulty repair of a wing crack and poor maintenance were the causes, the board…
The Bike Blog couldn’t make it, but last Friday’s tenuous Critical Mass-esque ride did, in fact, materialize. The event was fashioned after Critical Mass rides in other cities, which generally take place on the last Friday of every month. Assuming this event continues on a monthly basis, this means that…
Public transportation in Miami just got a lot easier – for tourists. Tuesday marked the “soft launch” for the new Visitor Passport, a $19 unlimited ride pass good for seven days. The county’s transit department hailed the advent as a key to help speed tourists on their way, saving them…
Sunday morning I awoke to a ferocious banging on the door of my apartment on Michigan Avenue and Eight Street on the Beach. It was 6:15 a.m. Again, a thunderous pounding echoed through the four-unit complex. I pottered downstairs. Staring through the glass-paneled door was a male, African-American, mid-twenties. “Hey,”…
This’ll be the best home brew ever! Ever feel the urge to talk to a marine scientist? Well look no further. Every Friday night they gather at bar behind the University of Miami Marine Sciences Campus on Virginia Key. Just make your first right off the Rickenbacker right after you…
Say you and your mate decide to have a romantic dinner in Coral Gables. The Hotel St. Michel comes to mind, because the room is so quiet and quaint, but as your last visit was quite some time ago, you check their website to investigate. The home page trumpets a…
After steady ignoring that weird splotch on your forearm for months now, you’ve finally convinced yourself that it’s actually changing shape, like a chocolate brown amoeba slowly squrming under a microscope. So what are you doing about it? No, seriously. Even though skin cancer is completely curable if diagnosed and…
I was thrilled to see an invitation in my mailbox (the snail mail one, not the virtual one) the other day. It was a formal-looking envelope, gray and stately. Good-quality paper, too: kind of heavy, with a linen texture. My name and address were printed on the front. Maybe, I…
Albert Facchiano is a 97-year-old Bal Harbor retiree. He’s also on house arrest. Why, you ask? Apparently Facchiano — whose aliases are “The Old Man” and “Chinky,” is a gangster. Like from waaaay back: think Bugsy Siegel and Lucky Luciano…
If you’re ever busted by City of Miami cops and you hear the words “mini-station” or “sub-station,” kick out the squad car window and run down the street as fast as your little legs can carry you. After an exhaustive two-year investigation, the Citizens Investigative Panel has concluded that there…
Since Seal had his couple of big stateside hits in the Nineties (the seemingly immortal “Kissed By a Rose” being the most recognizeable), lately he seems to have been relegated to the role of Mr. Heidi Klum. So who goes to a Seal concert in Miami in 2007? Well, for…
In honor of Memorial Day, Riptide would like to offer our weekend visitors — and our regular readers — this enjoyable youtube clip for your viewing pleasure. It’s a seven-minute loop of Horatio Caine one-liners on CSI:Miami. Note how Horatio casually slips his sunglasses on while delivering his words of…
Celebrating Mass Some time ago, the Bike Blog wrote about our city’s burgeoning Critical Mass, noting that Miami’s is a pretty tame incarnation of the worldwide pro-biking event. The confrontational nature of Critical Masses in some larger cities – in which riders completely stop traffic – is absent in Miami’s…
It’s been almost ten years since fashion designer Gianni Versace was gunned down on the steps of his Ocean Drive mansion. What better way to mark his passing than by buying his used shirts? –Tamara Lush…
The reputation of immigration court received another blow Wednesday, when Department of Justice employee Monica Goodling testified before congress that she had “crossed the line” when it came to her hiring tactics. Goodling admitted that she intended to hire people who were conservatives in her position interviewing candidates for attorney…
It sits on the small, white shelf at South Beach Body Waxing salon on Washington Avenue and 13th Street, sandwiched between the tubes of French “pleasure enhancement gel” and a row of fruity lotions. “We probably sell about two to three per week,” says Julissa Saragoza, Body Waxing’s receptionist, “and…
